June Birchbox

Have you ever heard of Birchbox?  If not, it's a really fun idea for people who love anything to do with beauty.  For $10 a month, you get a box shipped to you of high-end beauty products, which can be samples or full-sized products.  I signed up in May and my first Birchbox arrived today. I almost signed my sister up for a monthly subscription for her birthday but I wasn't sure if she would enjoy it.  (Jamie, would you like something like this?)

I was so excited to open it and I was overall happy with what I received but after looking at some other blogs and what they got in their Birchbox, I started to get a little disappointed.  First, I didn't realize that everyone's Birchbox was different.  The majority of the boxes were the same from what I saw but mine was a little different.  I'm not about to give up or get frustrated over it because I do like what I received but I wish I got one of the products that the others did (a full-sized bronzer worth $29.50) but I'm looking forward to my July Birchbox!  Anyways, here's what I received:

Baby Asher

One of the newest babies on the planet arrived last Wednesday, June 8th.  Asher McVey Zenner was born at 8:46 am weighing 7 lb 8 oz and 21 inches to parents Chris and Tanya.  Little Asher arrived very early as Tanya's due date was June 29th.  Remember that 103 degree day last week?  Well that's the day that Chris and Tanya had an appointment with the hospital for a tour and just before they were to leave, Tanya's water broke.  They packed up some things and went to the hospital where they were asked if they were there for the tour.  Yeah, a little more than just a tour.  Tanya was admitted and about 14 hours later, Asher was here.  Asher's middle name is McVey, which is in honor of Chris's mom.  She passed away from cancer when Chris was 17 and McVey was her maiden name.

We went to see Asher in the hospital the day after he was born and he looks like both mom and dad. He didn't open his eyes while we were there and he was just wrapped so tight in his blanket like a burrito. Both Tanya and Asher are doing well and they left the hospital on Friday afternoon.  Congratulations to both Tanya and Chris!

Dinner with Gramps

I haven't been good at documenting how often I've been going out with my Grandpa since my Gramma passed away in February.  We've been pretty consistent with going out to dinner on Wednesdays.  Sometimes it's every other Wednesday and sometimes it's every week, just depending on, well, mostly my schedule. This past Wednesday I picked up Grandpa and took him to American Burger Bar in downtown St. Paul.  He is likes all kinds of food but he definitely likes a good burger and I thought this would be a good place to take him.  It turned out to be a great place because he just loved it.  Most times when we've gone out, M has been with us too and my aunt came once but this time it was just him and I, which was really nice to have the chance to talk between just the two of us.  I try to get him to tell me what certain foods and places he likes or would like to go to and most times he just has me pick.  Being that he is an FBI, which as a kid he told me that stands for Full-Blooded Italian, I asked him if he likes Italian food like the Olive Garden, since it's a chain and not real authentic.  He said he did like it but in his whole Italian life, he's never tried Alfredo sauce!  Alfredo sauce is a thing in northern Italy and his parents lived in southern Italy and both the north and south didn't really get along so the north had white sauce while the south had red sauce.  Kinda funny.  I'll have to get him to try white sauce on one of our outings.

Weird Weather

This week has completely been extremely hot and then not so much.  On Monday, we broke a record with the high temperature reaching 97 degrees, breaking the old record of 95 degrees from back in 1987.  And then on Tuesday, here's what the temperature was...remember, I'm in Minnesota!

Needless to say, we broke a record with Tuesday's 103 degrees, breaking that same day record of 96 degrees back in 2004. In addition, it hadn't been 103 degrees MN since 1988, which sadly I'm old enough to  remember. 

And now it's Friday and the temp was in the low 60's today.  How about something in between like 80 or so?

Have a great weekend, my peeps!   

A Perfect Day for Bike Ride

M and I went for a motorcycle ride last Sunday on a magnificent day.  The sun was shining and it was about 80 degrees and perfect for the bike.  We didn't really have any destination in mind so we hopped on the bike and found ourselves in Hudson, Wisconsin where we ate lunch and then headed back into Minnesota and went south to Afton.  We stopped in Afton at a marina and took a break to enjoy the weather and St. Croix River for a bit before heading back on the bike to continue through Afton and made our way over to Prescott, Wisconsin.  We stopped at a bar on the main drag for a water and continued south down 35 until we hit Diamond Bluff and stopped on one of the streets along the river to look a map on my phone to see if we could find one of the rustic roads around the area.  We stopped right by a bar called the Nauti Hawg and happened to see M's brother Ray and his girlfriend Dolly stopped there.  We chatted with them for awhile before heading back home.  Overall, we were out for 7 hours and went about 120 miles.  I love weekend days like this!

Jamie's Birthday

Saturday was my sister Jamie's birthday and she wanted to celebrate by going garage sale-ing in the morning with me and my nephews so I left my house at 8 am and headed over to her house.  We went to sales around her area in South St. Paul and Inver Grove Heights.  I'm not really a garage sale-type person however I bought a few good things.  We got back to her house around 12:30 and I dropped them off and went home for a bit before heading out again later to join back up at her house for an early evening gathering.  The whole day was just gorgeous and it seemed to truly feel like summer.  We hung out on her patio until 11:30 pm or so drinking and eating from the chips and salsa bar we made with a few different types of salsa, guacamole and a cheese dip.  Yum!

I also made a card for my sister, gave her a couple of patio strawberry plants and I made a shadow box for her with different color butterflies to match her bedroom/bathroom. Hope you had a great birthday Jamie!

Tacos and Turkeys

M and I went out for tacos last Friday night.  The evening was so nice that we took the motorcycle.  After dinner, we saw a gorgeous sunset and we drove around our neighborhood enjoying the night.  We drove by a house and I swear I saw a turkey on their roof.  M turned around and went back and yes, there were two turkeys on the roof above the garage.  We just stopped to watch them and they were peeking in the windows of the house.  Can you imagine being on the 2nd floor of your house and looking out the window and seeing turkeys staring in at you?  They finally left the roof and one "flew" right over us into the tree above us.  Wild turkeys are so clumsy and weird and awkward which makes them so funny to watch so it was funny to see a 20 lb bird on a very high branch above us looking like he has no idea what he is doing up there.  It was getting dark so my pictures aren't the greatest but you get the idea.



The silhouette of the turkey above us





MS 150 Bike Ride

It's that time of year again and my boyfriend Michael is doing the MS 150 bicycle ride from Duluth to the Twin Cities over the course of two days.  That's 150 miles, peeps!  All donations raised on for this event benefit the Multiple Sclerosis Society's MN Chapter.  If you are interested in donating to Michael to help this cause, please click on the link below or right here!    --------> Michael's personal page  He wants to raise $1,000 and he's just over half way there and the ride is this coming weekend!  If you can't donate, that's ok but forward on his link to someone you know who would like to donate.  Thank you for your time!



This is from Michael:

Greetings Earthlings!


Guess what time of year it is?

It's time for me to ride my butt 150 miles to help the world rid itself of Multiple Sclerosis!

...and YOU GET TO HELP ME!!

I will do all of the hard work.

I will be pushing and straining my muscles...and all you have to do is reach into your pocket!

Easy huh?

This will be my 10th year riding and I would love to have your support.

If you can, please donate.

If not, please forward this email to all of your contacts.

I would GREATLY appreciate it!

Please CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW to read my story.

Click here to visit my personal page.

Thank you,

Michael "Motorcycles are better" Sack



Memorial Day Weekend

By the time M, Chris and I headed up north after work to M's parents house in Hinckley last weekend, it was rainy and that only complicated all the traffic headed up Interstate 35 but we made it up there in the 8 o'clock hour.  It continued to rain off and on throughout the night but we stayed mostly dry by hanging out in the garage with many of M's other family members.  Some even stayed in the rain all night just sitting by the fire but we played bumper pool and different dice games like 6,5,4 and Left, Right, Center for money. There were 19 family members and friends that stayed at M's parents Friday night and there would be a total of of 28 that stayed on Saturday night.  This was the first Memorial Day since M's parents moved from Isle on Lake Mille Lacs to Hinckley, which while there is no lake, it's about 30 miles closer to everyone.  We still made a visit to Mille Lacs on Saturday afternoon to visit M's uncle Jerry who still lives on the lake and we visited some garage sales on their street.  The weather on Saturday was bright and sunny and warm through most of the day and then around 6 pm, we had some brief rain and even some hail. We stayed until Sunday and the weekend seemed to go fast, as always.

Here's a general layout of M's parents property and how everyone scatters around for the weekend.

Saturday in Isle:

Contrary to popular belief, Chris did not catch this walleye.  M's cousin did.

We saw these at a garage sale.

This was a picture at a garage sale.  Look in the bowl and you will see a tiny teddy bear trapped in the noodles.  Maybe he's supposed to be a meatball?

Saturday in Hinckley: 

The hail

Playing in the puddle

This bird is a male Rose-breasted Grosbeak